Why is everybody okay with dying?

[Lorizael]

I've genuinely never understood this and it's infuriating to me that we collectively accept aging and death as inevitable. Here's a video where Kurzgesagt and CGPGrey (in a second part) articulate very well my thoughts on this issue, which I can't properly do right now because I was up until 4 in the morning making paperclips. Anyway, the best argument laid out in the video is: we already combat aging by spending a huge amount of money on healthcare for the elderly, but somehow the idea that we should be smarter about how we spend our healthcare dollars by figuring out how to prevent age-related breakdown in the first place is "going against nature" or some crap like that.

Edit: Uh, probably some words here like "what do you think" and without the angry tone from the above paragraph where it sure doesn't look like i'm trying to start a discussion and then i'd probably end by saying monkeys.

[Proteus_MST]

Without anyone dying mankind will soon grow to such numbes that it cannot be sustained, not even with the most modern technologies.
Either this, or you will have to implement a strict limit of 0 kids per couple ... and this will lead to a society in stagnation, where soon everyone has a distance of hundreds of years from the time where he was a child/youth and most people will (like the super rich in the movie "In Time" ) try to avoid even the tiniest risks, out of fear that they might die from accident (as this most likely would be the only way you could possibly die in this brave new world)

So, I would say it is our duty somehow, towards mankind and our future generations, to eventually die
As for fear of dying (or rather, fear of being dead):
IMHO there are 2 possibilities:
1. Our consciousness survives and there is a form of afterlife (or maybe even a circle of reincarnation, like in Buddhism/Hinduism)
2. Our consciousness dies with our physical body

If it is 1., it would only be frightening if it includes some eternity of suffering, like in the hell many christians believe in
If it is 2., I don't see any reason to be afraifd of it ... it would just be like a dreamless sleep from which you never awake

So IMHO the only thing to really be afraid of is, to have a dying process in which you suffer a lot.

[giblets]

There's a pretty big difference between "accepting aging and death as inevitable" and actually being okay with dying.

[Lorizael]

Without anyone dying mankind will soon grow to such numbes that it cannot be sustained...

Okay, but then why do we care for the elderly at all or try to find ways to treat age-related illnesses? Like, I know what the answer is: because when we see people suffering, we want to help them. The question is, how are we drawing a line between alleviating suffering we see and preventing the enormous suffering that coincides with aging?

[Lorizael]

There's a pretty big difference between "accepting aging and death as inevitable" and actually being okay with dying.

If you ask people if they want to die, they say no. If you ask them if they want to live forever, they also say no.

[Proteus_MST]

Okay, but then why do we care for the elderly at all or try to find ways to treat age-related illnesses? Like, I know what the answer is: because when we see people suffering, we want to help them. The question is, how are we drawing a line between alleviating suffering we see and preventing the enormous suffering that coincides with aging?

The ideal IMHO would be that we all live healthy lifes without any age related diseases ... and then, somewhen between 100 and 150 just drop dead ... kind of genetic switch that at this time gets swithed and causes our bodies to fail.
Death, but without any of the age-related suffering we now have

[BeBMan]

I'm not sure I want to have an ever increasing numbers of those annoying old ppl around...

[pchang]

As a whole, we are not OK with dying. Just look at all the effort going into just "living" all around you, every day. You of all people should know that you have to have enough coins, hammers, and elvises to keep society running. Only then can you put all the extras into lab coats. In addition, we don't have the tech tree mapped out in front of us. Who knows where a research topic or combination of research topics will lead? If we were OK with dying, we would not have medicine, diet, or exercise. As for asking people if they want to live forever, those who say no are envisioning and endless future of being "old" and decrepit along with the boredom of doing the same thing forever. Both are problems that we as society are putting great effort into alleviating.

However, as I have gotten older, I have learned to accept the reality that we do not live forever and that we will age and get decrepit over time. A constant state of anger and worry against this reality will not do anything to change it. In fact, we have learned that high levels of anger and worry have a high correlation with dying earlier.

[giblets]

If you ask people if they want to die, they say no. If you ask them if they want to live forever, they also say no.

Yeah, who wants to outlive all their friends and loved ones?

[Ben Kenobi]

If you ask people if they want to die, they say no. If you ask them if they want to live forever, they also say no.

Life is challenging for most folks. I can definitely see why people really would not want to live forever. What's the point? Our bodies get old and frail.

[Ben Kenobi]

If we were OK with dying, we would not have medicine, diet, or exercise. As for asking people if they want to live forever, those who say no are envisioning and endless future of being "old" and decrepit along with the boredom of doing the same thing forever. Both are problems that we as society are putting great effort into alleviating.

Given society's headlong charge into euthanasia, we'll soon be back into the bad old days again where it's easier to kill than to treat.

[Aeson]

If you ask people if they want to die, they say no. If you ask them if they want to live forever, they also say no.

Forever is a long time. I don't think many people would turn down an extra year or decade of youthfulness "on demand". A common defense against hopelessness is to deny the existence of your desires that do not appear possible to attain. There is great utility to this. If you go through life doing everything you can not to die, you're likely going to have an unfulfilling and ultimately futile life.

[ZEE]

I was going to poast a long winded response to this thrade, and I did not even read it, but I will simply say this:

I am looking forward to smoking a blunt with my buddy Beelzebub. Then I'll hang out in heaven for an eternity or two with the Keruv before going on a bloody rampage as a general in the army of The Lord of the Flies to soem poor fools that may or may not deserve it. I just like to see people in pain, especially when I cause it.

THAT'S HOW THIS FLY DOES THINGS.

[The Mad Monk]

Without anyone dying mankind will soon grow to such numbes that it cannot be sustained, not even with the most modern technologies.
Either this, or you will have to implement a strict limit of 0 kids per couple ... and this will lead to a society in stagnation, where soon everyone has a distance of hundreds of years from the time where he was a child/youth and most people will (like the super rich in the movie "In Time" ) try to avoid even the tiniest risks, out of fear that they might die from accident (as this most likely would be the only way you could possibly die in this brave new world)

So, I would say it is our duty somehow, towards mankind and our future generations, to eventually die.

Our duty? Towards a theoretical construct, and towards something that, strictly speaking, doesn't exist in the present moment?

[Proteus_MST]

Our duty? Towards a theoretical construct, and towards something that, strictly speaking, doesn't exist in the present moment?

Well if, for example, you are saving money for your retirement or for some future investment you also, strictly speaking, do something for the benefit of some theoretical construct that doesn't exist at the present moment.
Same goes for paying into a health insurance policy